Cherry, Neneh & The Thing

The Cherry Thing [VINYL]

Label: Smalltown Supersound Country: Norway

"The Thing took it's name from a piece by Don Cherry: when they first got together it was to play his music. So it does make sense that they should eventually team up with Don Cherry's daughter. Neneh Cherry & The Thing met for the first time at a recording session in London in the fall of 2010. It clicked right away as they all shared an open, free approach to the music. The high energy of The Thing's playing found a fitting counterpart in Neneh's intense style. After a performance at Strand, Stockholm in March 2011 it was decided to continue the collaboration.

[The summer of 2012] The Cherry Thing will tour the European music festivals. Apart from their own compositions they will also play the music of such diverse artists as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Velvet Underground singer Nico & hip hop artist MF doom. A born pioneer, Neneh Cherry fits naturally into the forefront of musical & social change, whether it's post-punk, rap, or giving the music world a new image of female pop stars: famously, she promoted her breakthrough solo album Raw Like Sushi by getting down on British TV wearing a tight outfit - & seven months pregnant.

Breakthroughs mark Cherry's career, full of individual choices like collaborating with Senegal's Youssou N'Dour on "7 Seconds" which reached number 1 in 48 countries & was voted Song of the Century by the French public in 2000. Her next release, the torch song "Woman", was sung in English & Spanish & consolidated Neneh's respect as a conscious global role model for women & those that appreciate them. Starting out by joining key punk girl band The Slits, Neneh next became the voice of renegade free-blowing post-punk bohoes Rip, Rig & Panic & their successor: Float Up, C.P.. After attracting further attention with her vocals on The The's classic Slow Train To Dawn, Neneh became part of 'Buffalo', the creative collective assembled by the late visionary visualizer Ray Petri, whose style so shaped the 1980s.

Now a solo artist, Cherry hit big straight away with the worldwide hit singles "Buffalo Stance", "Manchild" & "Inna City Mamma" from her debut album Raw Like Sushi. More followed, like "Buddy X" from the Homebrew & Man albums, which also featured "Woman" & "7 Seconds". After the Man album Neneh decided to step off the corporate music business tread mill preferring to collaborate with artists such as Tricky, Damon Albarn on his Gorillaz project & her own family collective cirKus.

The Thing was established in the spring of 2000 when the three musicians met to play several concerts & to record their first CD on the Crazy Wisdom label (brain child of Swedish left field pioneer Conny Lindström). In 2001 they recorded another CD on the same label as a quartet with Joe McPhee. The trio was a long wanted constellation where several musical styles meet in a very high energetic outlet. When the trio started out the book contained mainly tunes by Don Cherry. Since Joe McPhee`s participation, the Thing's repertoire has included other free jazz standards by David Murray, Frank Lowe & Norman Howard, as well as tracks by PJ Harvey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The White Stripes. The Thing has performed with guests like Thurston Moore, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O'Rourke & Peter Evans.#

The trio of Mats Gustafsson, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, and Paal Nilssen-Love was established in February 2000 during a series of concerts and a recording in Stockholm. The recordings were released in Sweden by the label Crazy Wisdom/Universal. This trio is a long wanted collaboration where the German, British and American tradition of free music is melded together in this Swedish-Norwegian trio where the energy is at its peak. The repertoire is collected from the music of legendary trumpeter Don Cherry who spent many of his years living in Stockholm. These are tunes that are rarely played and represent a period in Cherry's life that was to inspire the Swedish jazz scene. Cherry's son, Eagle Eye, wrote the liner notes for the CD (Gustafsson/Flaten/Nilssen-Love, "The Thing", Crazy Wisdom) that was released in Europe in Spring 2001. The trio toured Sweden and Norway in February 2001 with American multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee who rarely appears in Scandinavia. The band recorded their next CD with Joe McPhee which was released in August at Oslo Jazzfestival 2001. The repertoire consists of compositions by James Blood Ulmer, Frank Lowe, PJ Harvey, White Stripes and Joe McPhee. The Thing with Joe McPhee, "She Knows..." was released on Crazy Wisdom/Universal.

Joe McPhee is a legend within modern jazz music. With many recordings on different labels with musicians from the world, he has established himself as a contemporary, improvising musician above all. Today he is active in several groups including Trio X and the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, where he first met Mats Gustafsson.Mats Gustafsson is currently Sweden's and perhaps Europe's most well-known artist within free improvised music. He has established himself as a saxophonist with a broad repertoire of extended techniques on level with Evan Parker and John Butcher. He has also been inspired by the "Brötzmann-school" which demands volume above all else. Mats is also known through AALY trio and collaborations with Jim O´Rourke, Thurston More, Jaap Blonk, Paul Lovens and Barry Guy among others.

Since their first collaboration in 1992, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love have established themselves as Norway's heaviest rhythm-section through their work with the group Element. Today they are active in School Days with Ken Vandermark, the Scorch trio with Raoul Björkenheim, and Atomic."-Smalltown Superjazzz